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The International Society For The History Of The Map Has Duelling Websites
In 2011, a bunch of map nerds (or cartography historians, as they prefer to be called) founded the International Society for the History of the Map, or ISHMap, because people collecting old maps are quite busy. The organization is dedicated to the preservation and education of map history. They even have an adorable website that looks like someone copied it from a 1995 Microsoft Encarta CD-ROM.
Int. Society For The History Of The Map The website equivalent of a map with dragons on it.
Except that this website is a fraud! The society also has this other website, called Mapping As A Process, which claims to be the one true website and that the other is the illegal creation of a rogue member. Apparently, due to a "constitutional crisis" within the mapping group (something involving gerrymandering, we have to assume), a special council was held removing their last-ever president, Hungarian professor Zsolt G. Torok. However, Torok has refused to accept the election results, and continues to operate as the chair of the society. That might seem very small of this cartographer, but that's because you're forgetting to factor in the scale.
And Torok got his revenge and then some. For a long time, his website showed up as the top Google result if you searched the name of the society, even though it's technically unaffiliated with them. Meanwhile, the real website struck back by publicly stating that "Prof. Torok's actions are illegitimate, ill-advised, and detrimental to the health of the international community of map historians." In retaliation, the professor started 2018 by telling ISHMap members that they're only allowed to renew their memberships through his website, even though he no longer has access to the Society's bank account. Clearly, this goofy war is showing no signs of getting any less vicious. And that's the danger with feuds between mapheads: They're quick on the draw and know exactly where the bodies are buried.
The best kinds of maps are the ones where you can track your travels anyway.
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